The Atera GIRO AF+ is most of the way towards being a very good rack, but we had a few problemsRussell Burton

Worryingly, we were able to slide the carrier off the roof barsRussell Burton

If your bike is fitted with the fattest treads, or deep-section wheels, it may not fitRussell Burton

For the money, Atera’s GIRO AF+ rack has its work cut out – it must match Thule’s market-leading, benchmark-setting and equally priced Proride 951 if we are to recommend it.

Advertisement

First up then, the frame-holding mechanism works very well indeed. It quickly clamps onto down tubes of all sizes, holding very securely, while the rubber clamping surfaces shouldn’t damage the frame.

If your bike is fitted with the fattest treads, or deep-section wheels, it may not fit:

If your bike is fitted with the fattest treads, or deep-section wheels, it may not fit

The ramped wheel-holders slide to length easily, and clamp in place to the rail, but the wheel straps are a little short. Big tyres make it fiddly and difficult to stretch the ratchet strap into the mechanism; add a deep-section rim, and they simply won’t reach around.

The frame-locking mechanism was occasionally fiddly to undo, but did the job. The lock which fixes the carrier to the roof bar became jammed on our sample, making it impossible to unlock.

Advertisement

More worrying still, it was still possible to slide the carrier off the roof bars. This issue could be a one-off glitch, and the rack is generally solid unless your bike is sporting seriously fat rubber, but it’s a bit lacking in a feel of ultimate quality.

Authors

Seb's been riding and racing mountain bikes for half his life. Since getting hooked on mountain bikes aged thirteen riding a tiny 24Seven Crosser, he's raced downhill, enduro and cross country, and while no athlete, still enters the occasional race. Seb studied experimental physics at university, and he's now happily using (wasting) his degree experimenting with different bike setups, trying to work out what works best and why. You'll often find him riding the same track ten times in a day, changing just one thing to pin down the differences. Seb's much happier back-to-back testing suspension on a wet Welsh hillside than riding the latest five-figure bikes on some sunny press trip - although he quite likes that too!